Time to stand up to ‘struggle kids’

The ‘struggle kids’ – a reference to people, now adults, who were born in exile during the country’s liberation struggle – have of late become, for the lack of a better word, a nuisance.

The scenes this week in the Brakwater area of big boulders placed on the road to disupt traffic and the nearby veld set on fire, were a timely warning that this group – if not reined in – would soon bring this country to its knees.

Namibia is on the move and we cannot have dissidents causing anarchy at a time when we all need to pull in one direction to develop our country on all fronts – with accelerated effort in true Harambee spirit.

In fairness, government has paid special attention to the plight of struggle kids – to the dismay of other equally deserving young people, whose only fault is that they were not born outside the country.

But even with this special attention, the so-called struggle kids have often remained not only ungrateful, but unruly and anarchical too.
This week’s violent protests were another perfect example of how the group continues to selfishly ignore the good things being done in its favour.

We understand that they were irked by government’s attempt to relocate them from Brakwater to a farm in the Omaheke Region, where they are to undergo training and receive a monthly allowance while on that training.

But being the selfish lot that they are, the group responded to this gesture in the most brutal of fashions – threatening innocent motorists and everyone else in sight. This is anarchy of the highest order.
Namibia cannot be taken hostage by anyone – struggle kids or not.

This nation has been built on a strong foundation of peace, stability and social order. It is these tenets, amongst others, that have carried us through the difficult times of severe drought, world economic meltdown, the Caprivi secession attempt and many other tribulations, from which we emerged victorious.

Every Namibian, including members of this troublesome group, has the right to stand up and express their views. They, in fact, are very much allowed to take on the government if they feel left out. But all this has to be done within the ambit of the law.

What we saw this week – running battles and burning tyres – is not the Namibian way. We are better than that and have always tried, by and large, to be civil in our approach to demanding services from our government and its leaders.

We would not even dare touch on the merits of this group’s demands, because if we do, we will dilute the essence of our argument, which is that anarchy cannot the tolerated – whether the demands are justified or not.

Earlier this year, the same people were involved in bloody confrontations with farmers in the Brakwater area, to the extent that some elderly people ended up being treated in hospital for injuries.

One man, a bus driver commuting between Windhoek and the North, was also badly beaten by members of the same group to the extent he could not work for some time.

Should we wait until someone is killed before we eventually rein in this unruly mob or what exactly are we waiting for?